Over the last few years, articles, talks, and presentations on multi-sport development have skyrocketed. In fact, as more and more people have come out to criticize the “dangers” of single-sport participation as an extreme on the development spectrum, multi-sport development has become the panacea that everyone has looked for! It’s easy to find articles that talk about the hidden dangers if your child only plays one sport growing up, but for some reason articles questioning multi-sport development seem to be much harder to find.

This article is not one that advocates either/or, because ultimately neither address the issue. All this article aims to do is present a side to this story that never gets talked about.

Parents are now told that if their child doesn’t participate in more than one sport, this young boy or girl is somehow missing out. In order to fulfill athletic and general development, different activities and different experiences are necessary, lest the child experience burnout. It sounds great on paper. It sounds even better when you stand in front of a room full of concerned parents and help assuage their fears! Unfortunately, it’s just like more generalized statements. It lacks CONTEXT!

The player is the syllabus. The CHILD is the syllabus. What works for one might not work for the other, and what works for some definitely won’t work for others.

A few months back a young girl had joined our “youth academy” at the club I coach at, and before she left the car she was hysterical! All the young boys and girls were having a blast, with a smile on their face, but this young girl seemed to cry more as the practice went on. Finally, the parents came up to us and asked us for our advice. They explained that their daughter loved gymnastics and asked to be signed up for it over the Fall, but they decided it would be better to put their daughter in a completely new sport.

This girl’s first experience with the sport many of us love was one of emotional terror, simply because parents listened to a nice talk on development rather than their own daughter’s desires. The multi-sport development route leaves little for context. If your child doesn’t play three sports, are you even doing your job as a parent? Are you doing the best you can for your child? It has become such an extreme that is has taken the other end of the development spectrum, when its original intention was to combat the “extreme” of single sport participation.

Just as there can be downsides to single-sport development, there are downsides to multi-sport development. I have seen countless players who play two sports a season and now have to make only half of the practices and games for each sport. The ideas of commitment and giving your all to something are losing out to an idea that can fail our children just as much as single sport development can. We have an environment in which players are growing up realizing that they only need to show up for games on the weekend because they practice a different sport during the week. Or that it’s ok to only go to half the games each season because they’re just simply busy with other things.

I know of some of my younger players who consistently ask where their teammates are every other practice. People figure out very quickly, and the idea of who is committed and who is not is one that sticks for even a young player. Those missing the practice think the same thing, as they begin to lose that connection to the team as they are torn between three different groups. Can they ever really establish themselves over the course of a season and form those bonds with the group they are a supposedly a part of?

We worry about burnout, which can be a legitimate fear, but we seem to forget that with more sports comes more practice. A child who only plays soccer, who only wants to play soccer, and has two structured practices a week is at more risk of burnout than a child who has baseball on Monday and Wednesday, Soccer on Tuesday and Thursday, and Lacrosse, Soccer, and Baseball on the weekend? Interesting.

We have an environment where on a Saturday or Sunday players are finishing their soccer game only to be whisked away in the mini-van to their flag football game, followed by their baseball game under the lights. To argue that this is better than single sport development is foolish, because both are just generalized ideas not suited for individualized plans.

Credit: Aspen Institute, "7 Charts That Show the State of Youth Sports in the US and Why It Matters."

The biggest price with Multi-Sport development isn’t hidden at all. The PRICE to have your child play numerous sports a year. The hostile environment we have created in which parents aren’t doing their job if their child doesn’t play two to three different sports a year fails to understand that many people in this country can’t afford sports bills in the thousands of dollars each season. I coach in an area where some families can afford $1000 uniforms and some families cannot afford $150 to play soccer for an entire season. Think about that. Youth sports are a business, and it’s an even better business when we parade around the idea that if your child doesn’t play hockey, baseball, and soccer every 12 months, then you aren’t doing your job as a parent. It isn’t fair to generalize and shoulder the burden on a large portion of the country that shouldn’t have to fork over tons of money to play in all of these sports.

The business model is one that doesn’t address the real problem. The panic culture that has been created is one in which we do a disservice to families by making them think they are less than if their child only plays in the sport he or she wants to. What’s the difference between this and buying baby Mozart CD’s in the hopes that a child becomes smarter, but never giving them a book to read?

The answer is right in front of you. It’s simple. It’s easy, in fact. It’s right under your nose and you don’t need to read this or a fancy Ted Talk to understand. The answer is your child. If your child has a passion for playing multiple sports, encourage the passion. They may never choose just one, and you know what, that’s ok. You still should instill the values of commitment and hard work as well as focusing on the task at hand. If it’s within your means and you can make it work, then go for it.

If your child wants to play only one sport because they have a deep passion for it, then let them. There is nothing wrong with wanting to try new things, or encouraging them to try new things, but they should have ownership of the process. It isn't that multi-sport development is wrong, or single sport development is evil. It's that your child deserves the unique path in which they can develop to their needs.

More often than not, they are trying to show you the path they want to take. Close your mouth, open your ears, and let them show you the way.

Firstly, most people who advocate for multi-sport play do not advocate for playing multiple sports in the same season - they advocate for doing different ones in different seasons, so most of these points would be moot.

Secondly, multi-sport also (scientifically, supposedly) helps develop more muscle groups, etc. as well as improve agility and such... any counter?

Thirdly, single sport is shown to lead to overuse in certain muscles at younger ages... how does one combat that?

Fourthly, I don't know that little gymnastics girl. But in general, parents do have a role in "forcing" their kids to try new things. Kids don't always know what's best, and parents are supposed to teach them that. Many children will dread trying something new, only to discover that they love it and it ends up being their favorite... perhaps these parents did not communicate well with their child or go about it the right way.

Lastly, multi-sport advocates refer to burnout when it comes to coaches/organizations/parents wanting children to specialize in only one sport year-round "for their best development." Yes, if a child has his/her own drive to do so, he/she might not get burned out by the sport. However, structured play year-round does deteriorate that drive - and hurts them physically... more free/street play is the solution for these kids.

Reply

Mark masse

1/27/2016 03:58:27 pm

LTAD recommendations for hours of training per week based on age is a good guideline to follow.

I believe this blog post generalizes a bit too much. Perhaps it is targeted towards the 'multiple sports in a season' parents. I agree with you on all of your points though.

If we keep letting our kids stay comfortable and 'safe' in their choices and never try anything new, then I believe that is the bigger disservice to their development.

Anecdotal:

I make my 9 y/o son play different sports (no overlap in seasons of course) so that he may develop new skills, meet different people, and experience something new. He objects sometimes but he is never emotionally scarred by the change of sports.

Balance is the goal here.

This is why I limit his sporting involvement to 1 sport per season. I have neither the time nor the patience to attend more than one sport. I want to spend family time doing other things like playing video games, having bbq's with friends, taking the kids fishing, watching movies etc.

I tried him at rugby and he didn't like it, so we didn't continue after the season ended. But he has 2 friends from it that he plays with still. And the physical side has help him with basketball (his preferred sport), and challenging for rebounds, box outs etc.

I forced him to play a sport he didn't like, and he's fine. He won't continue with it, but he learned and made new friends from it.

In response: Firstly, using objective fact and reality rather than generalizations, this is sometimes the case, but also there are many who play 2-3 sports in the same season. The winter is particularly prone to this. Regardless, how are players supposed to master their sport and get their unstructured play/training time if they are constantly doing other sports.
Secondly: all muscle groups are developing naturally through the childs natural growth and this is purely down to genetics at the younger ages. Hence why fitness training is not done before the age of 12 years. Upto this point, weight training or general fitness training has been shown to give minimal & negligible training benefits to players of such a young age.
Thirdly: Multisports is the very cause of the youth injury epidemic that is seen in this country, and is much greater in prevalence than the other developed countries. Why?.....because kids get no rest, a physical turn in Basketball uses the same muscles as a turn in soccer, or lacrosse, the same gross motor movements are used in all sports. So playing multiple sports will typically lead to less rest and more injuries.
Fourthly: Children will naturally have gravitated to and know what their favorite sport sometimes as early as 6. Too many parents continue the theme of 'trying new things' well into the teen years which is too late for players to become highly skilled in the sports that require fine motor skills (hockey & soccer etc)
Lastly: By playing multiple sports, players have less time for the unstructured/free play element of their development to take place, therefore increasing the chance of burnout.
As Paul says, the other side of the story.

Reply

Jamie

2/1/2016 12:34:26 am

Do we want our kids to master their sport? Is that what they want? Or is it what you want? I'm speaking to all parents out there.

In this debate we forget the other activities to which attention must be paid: socializing, studying, participating in other interests, family time, relax time (watching movies, playing video games etc)

The line I always use is Balance. There is finite amount of time to which we can do anything. If sports is the pursuit you want to focus on, it must leave room for other activities. Nobody will stop you from doing what you think is best for your child. I just like to consider that there is more to life than sports.

Nice article Paul. At 6-8 years of age my son played basketball, baseball, tennis and soccer (all recreational), from 8 years on he has focused strictly on soccer and soccer enhancing sports (track, cross country). Glad to have exposed him to other sports early, but also happy he has chosen the beatiful game as his passion. As you mention, youth sports are indeed a business. Unfortunately soccer (like most club sports) in the US is a pay to play game. The higher the competitive level of the team, the more the parents pay. I am not so sure that this model is effective in developing the best players of the future.

The article applies to the 15 team invasion sports, as well as dozens of individual sports, that compete for players and family disposable income in the United States and Canada where the player development model varies from other nations. Parents want their children to be successful and either limit participation to one or at most two sports a year often feeling early specialization results in a better chance of high school or college sports participation.

A recent study in central Europe found that 60% of the players who eventually signed professional contracts with the most elite clubs spent their time playing for fun, learning about the game and enjoying life prior to age 15 and 16. These elite professional players then focused on one football, learning the skills and trying to become a professional player. Their learning rate in the age 15 and older ages was significantly faster than their peers including those who specialized in one sport year round at an early age.

A parallel study of tennis players entering the professional ranks in their late teens and early twenties showed they also became more focused and passed their peers in 15 and older age groups.

An infant is born with 306 bones (give or take a couple) and matures into an adult with only 200 bones. In most team and individual sports (gymnastics and swimming being exceptions) the majority of these 306 bones must mature and become strong adult bones before the individual can do the weight bearing learning to master most sports.

Both early specialization and multi-sport participation at too young an age lead to bad habits, poor technique, injuries and children leaving sports because they feel too much pressure and not enjoying them as they should.

Waiting for a child to go through puberty and to develop skeletal maturity leads to significantly more success at a much higher level of play and greater satisfaction playing and a real love of the game. It's not dedication to one sport at too young an age or playing a large number of sports at too young an age that is the issue. The issue is skeletal and muscle maturity and not training children like adults until they have gone through puberty and have the ability to handle the work load to master the sport(s) they enjoy playing.